Explores the struggle between journalists, political actors, and the public for control of the news in democratic countries. This book shows how the news media function as an intermediary between governments and citizens, as well as between political actors (such as parties and interest groups) and the public.

Doris A. Graber is professor emeritus of political science and communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has written and edited numerous articles and books on the news media, public opinion, and information-processing. They include Media Power in Politics, Sixth Edition (2010), The Power of Communication: Managing Information in Public Organizations (2003), a prize-winning book about Processing Politics: Learning from Television in the Internet Age (2001), and On Media and Making Sense of Politics (2012), a comparative study of learning about politics from entertainment broadcasts. Denis McQuail (1935-2017) was Emeritus Professor at the School of Communication Research (ASCOR) University of Amsterdam and Visiting Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Southampton. He studied history and sociology at the University of Oxford and received his Ph.D. from the University of Leeds. He is an Honorary Doctor of the University of Gent. He has published widely in the field of media and communication, with particular reference to audience research, media policy and performance, and political communication. His most recent book publication is McQuail's Media and Mass Communication Theory, 7th edition., SAGE, 2020, co-authored by Mark Deuze. Pippa Norris is Director of the Democratic Governance group in the United Nations Development Programme in New York and the Maguire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Recent books include Sacred and Secular: Politics and Religion Worldwide (with Ronald Inglehart, 2004), Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior (2004), and Driving Democratization: What Works (2006). Norris, who is a political scientist, has served as an expert consultant for many international bodies including the UN, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, International IDEA, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the UK Electoral Commission.